McCann Healthcare: 2017
McCann Healthcare
622 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Telephone: 646-865-3246
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: mccannhumancare.com
Winner
Best Self Promotional Campaign
Finalist
Best Interactive Patient Campaign
Accounts
Account wins 6
Active business clients 10
Brands by 2016 sales
Brand-product accounts held 13
Services Mix
HCP 90%
DTC 10%
Client Roster
Alexion
AstraZeneca
Bayer
Boehringer Ingelheim
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Kowa
Lilly
Nestle
Takeda
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
The year 2016 was one of exciting transformation for McCann Healthcare, according to agency executives. “In a strategic move to create a unique cross-discipline offering, a new partnership was formed between two McCann Health North American agencies – McCann Healthcare, which specializes in marketing to the professional health community, and McCann HumanCare, a consumer health and wellness agency,” according to management.
Leo Tarkovsky now serves as president of McCann Healthcare and McCann HumanCare, both located in McCann Health’s Manhattan headquarters, reporting to Amar Urhekar, president of McCann Health Americas.
Tarkovsky’s first strategic move was to appoint Frank Mazzola as executive VP, executive creative director. Mazzola, who agency leaders call one of the industry’s best and brightest creative stars, “has led the agency in a creative revolution,” executives say.
“At the end of the day, creativity is our product. So ideas are at the core of everything we do,” Mazzola says.
To capture the excitement, creativity and ambition in the agency, the leadership team initiated a new mantra: McCann Healthcare – Where Rule Breakers Rule.
The Year’s Accomplishments
During 2016, McCann Healthcare grew its revenue by double digits and expanded the agency’s focus from primarily specialty and rare diseases to larger, more promotional brands in the respiratory, depression, and diabetes spaces, according to the executive management team.
To accommodate its growing client roster, Jeannine Doumar and Michael Bonilla, both formerly of GSW, were brought in as group creative directors, agency executives say, and along with Mazzola, Doumar and Bonilla added more than 20 new creative positions, greatly expanding the agency’s ability to provide creative innovation.
McCann Healthcare has completed multiple launches and put in place major initiatives for clients this year. Particularly noteworthy, management says, is the agency’s work for Boehringer Ingelheim called “Split Second,” an unbranded film intended for reps to share with HCPs, which also lives online, and a “remarkable” new campaign for Takeda Oncology to support the global launch of a groundbreaking new indication for Adcetris.
Long-time client Alexion tapped McCann Healthcare to partner on strategic development plans for multiple pipeline products. Further organic growth was achieved with the addition of DTP, pharmacy, digital, and online initiatives for the agency’s Boehringer Ingelheim brands. The agency also successfully launched a new product for Bayer Women’s Healthcare.
Structures & Services
“Clients are wanting and demanding integrated solutions from their agency partners,” Tarkovsky says.
With McCann Healthcare’s new leadership structure, the desire for access to integrated capabilities has been met by partnering with patient-focused McCann HumanCare across select accounts. “Our HCP and DTC teams sit just a couple of floors apart and seamlessly operate as one team,” Tarkovsky says. “Our folks are getting a workout climbing the stairs.”
In 2016, new brands were won by leveraging the capabilities that come with these internal partnerships, executives say. According to agency leaders, the teams for AstraZeneca, Lilly diabetes, Bristol-Myers Squibb oncology, and most recently, Takeda CNS, were built using talent from both McCann Healthcare and McCann HumanCare, with support from sister agencies McCann Managed Markets, Consulting at McCann Health, and Weber Shandwick.
“We thrive on collaboration. It’s in our DNA,” says Colleen Hindsley, executive VP, managing director. “McCann Healthcare has always been a standard for integration at McCann Health North America and our new structure just continues to emphasize that.”
To ensure that the agencies are ready for even more integrated assignments, Tarkovsky expanded the business development departments at McCann Healthcare and McCann HumanCare, appointing Andrew Chamlin as the chief marketing officer across both agencies. Executives say this move will help reinforce the spirit of partnership set out by Urhekar.
Incorporating digital into the agency’s list of capabilities has also been critical in keeping ahead of the needs of clients and the category, executives say, and McCann Healthcare has made strides in its quest for digital innovation with the addition of Binh Tran as digital creative lead.
Future Plans
In his new role as president of McCann Healthcare, Tarkovsky says he is planning to apply some of the same organizing principles that have enabled McCann HumanCare to triple in size in under three years. He adds that four key ingredients drive his motivation for success: talent, creativity, digital, and integration.
“The McCann Health N.A. integrated offering is structured around successful shared processes and tools, putting us in a unique and favorable position to deliver better results for clients,” Tarkovsky says.
Philanthropy/Citizenship
McCann Healthcare proudly advanced its long-time relationship with the Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation, which was founded to honor the memory of one of the children lost in the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. The foundation raises funds in support of the CVH Animal Sanctuary in Connecticut.
“The ad we created for them is simple and strikes one of the most difficult balances there could be on a project like this, which is honoring the memory of Catherine and promoting the foundation itself,” Mazzola says.
Group Copy Supervisor Linda Enns took it upon herself to expand the campaign. Seeing a connection between the “Kindness Is Everywhere” creative and a Broadway play she loved, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” Enns was able to secure free ad space for the CVH Foundation in the show’s Playbill. “Because they loved the ad so much, Playbill gave it a prominent placement in the Playbills for six other major Broadway shows, reaching an audience of more than 1 million people,” executives say.
According to management, another grassroots effort came in the form of a holiday campaign for the National Organization for Women. “Several McCann Healthcare staffers, inspired by NOW’s mission to ensure affordable contraception for women, created a quirky and irreverent campaign called ‘Nasty or Nice,’” executives say. The agency used a combination of social media, print placements in publications such as Time Out New York, and live events to reach NOW’s target audience. According to managers, the campaign ultimately strengthened NOW’s recruitment efforts and resulted in a 25 percent increase in new members during the holiday season.